My Dog Killer bites Slovak Oscar nomination

26/09/2013 - Slovakia has nominated the sophomore feature of young director Mira Fornay for the Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film. To nobody´s surprise.

My Dog Killer[+see also: film reviewtrailerfilm profile] won the Tibor Vichta Award for Best Screenplay in 2009 and was the official project at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2010. The world premiere was held at the 42ndInternational Film Festival in Rotterdam where the film won one of the three Hivos Tiger Awards. From then on, it kept scooping awards on the festival circuit and is also running for the European Film Award.

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Mira Fornay studied at the Prague´s FAMU and the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield in the UK. She debuted with a character-driven drama Foxes at the International Critics Week in Venice in 2009. Although My Dog Killer is only the second feature, it is a rather matured piece of work indicating the director´s talent. By chosing this film as its national candidate, Slovakia again has a chance to win the Best Foreign Language Film after 48 years.

Similarly to Hungarian director BenceFliegauf´sJust the Wind[+see also: film reviewtrailerinterview: Bence Fliegauffilm profile], Fornay also fiddles with the notion of racism. However, the Slovak film is a social drama covering several themes in the narrative framework of a dysfunctional family. Marek lives with his father and four-legged best friend, Killer. After he seeks out his estranged mother in order to get some property papers signed, he learns about his Gypsy half-brother Lukas. This sheds unflattering light on Marek as a wanna-be skinhead. The shame and thirst for revenge starts to boil altogether and a family tragedy is on the horizon.

In addition to My Dog Killer, Slovakia will also be represented at the Oscars by the short film Pandas (by Matúš Vizár). The animated satire about suicidal pandas has won third prize at the Cinéfondation during the Cannes International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the International Film Festival in Melbourne.

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